Honour, Valour & Duty
by storytelleric
Summary: A young orc is beset by spirits and visions. She must find her own place in a dangerous world, where even her own family does not agree with her values.


**Honour, Valour and Duty - Part One: Ominous**

Her father had named her Izakhi, but nobody ever called her that anymore. Ever since the spirits had started talking to (and through) her, the family and farm hands had only called her Ominous.

As if it was _her_ fault that the spirits only ever had bad news to speak of! Constant dire warnings and dark visions would mess with _anyone_'s mental state, never mind a barely-adolescent orc who was worked to exhaustion on a pig farm every day.

She ran away at fourteen. She knew it was wrong, but she just couldn't deal with the visions on her own any more. She didn't sneak out - that would have been cowardly and dishonourable. She announced her intention to her father, survived the argument and the beating that followed, and limped her way to the Valley of Trials.

There, she met two people who would change her life.

The first was Shikrik, a middle-aged woman who would help her come to terms with her connection to the spirits and elements of the world. It was Shikrik who taught her the word _shaman_, and how to control the visions and repair her fracturing sanity. The spirits began to bend to her call, instead of the other way around.

The second... was Thrall. It was his slave-name, given to him by the humans who had raised him, but he wore it proudly. He had brought the Horde together and become its undisputed warchief, and had single-handedly (well, almost) saved the world from being broken apart during Deathwing's Cataclysm.

He was the most powerful shaman in the world, and the hottest orc ... ever.

If _he_ could take his slave-name and turn it into a symbol of strength, then she would do the same! From that moment on, she _was _Ominous; her childhood name was forgotten. Every day she fantasized about being powerful enough to come to Thrall's attention. She dreamed he would visit the Valley again, see her practising, and would be so impressed that he would _demand _that she join his retinue, first as an apprentice, then later... well.

But despite her passion and effort, she just didn't rise to that level of power. Day after day, she cast her spells until her hands shook and her head pounded, but many other students came and went as their power grew, leaving her practicing against the target dummies.

Half a year passed, and she found out, to the jeers of her peers, that Thrall had in fact had a mate since _before_ the Cataclysm, and now in fact had a baby boy as well. Overcome by frustration and disappointment, Ominous took her leave from the Valley, and took to wandering the world.

She traveled the length and breadth of three continents, helped countless people in trouble, and fought against oppression and evil in many forms, but it wasn't until she arrived in the mystical land of Pandaria that she found a focus for her frustrations:

The new warchief of the Horde, Garrosh Hellscream.

She could see how his pride and hatred had ruined the beautiful land and twisted the elements. She attempted to aid the rebellious Troll leader Vol'jin plot against the rapacious warchief, but was forced to watch as the Troll was backstabbed and poisoned almost to death. Now even more furious, she returned to Durotar to join the resistance. She would join the Trolls and the Tauren and bring down this warmongering dictator that was corrupting and perverting the might of the Horde.

Unfortunately, on her first mission into the Kor'kron lumber yards of the Barrens, she was captured by Garrosh's vicious guards. They imprisoned her in an iron cage, and were set to kill her (or worse), when she recognized one of them.

Her father.

He refused to free her, and blasted her angrily for her betrayal of the lawful warchief. But as before, she stood before him defiantly; bruised and beaten but still defending her choices and her honour. She told him what she had seen in Pandaria.

Her honour demanded that she fight, just as his demanded that he defend. He released her from her cage, but stood between her and freedom. Their battle raged for almost a quarter of an hour, attracting most of the Kor'kron garrison.

Finally, at the brink of defeat, her power blossomed. As blood and tears splashed across the ground, she found the might of Earth, the breath of Fire, and the song of Air. With the elements at her side, she managed to overcome her father's strength and weapons, casting him to the ground.

With his honour satisfied, he relented. He then turned to the other guards and demanded that they allow her to walk free.

They refused. They had no honour at all.

Without hesitation, he took up his weapons with a fearsome battle cry, and leapt upon his former comrades. Together, father and daughter fought their way to the edge of the garrison, leaving it in flames. Only then did her father fall under the weight of their attackers, ordering her to run.

Fear overcame courage. She fled, hating herself for every step.

She returned to the resistance, rejoicing in Vol'jin's unexpected recovery and return, and soon joined them in storming Garrosh's stronghold. She could not claim a great part in the victory; she did not consider herself a hero, merely a cog in a greater machine. Yet, she was satisfied, having given everything she had to offer throughout the battle. Her honour was intact. She got to meet Thrall, and though he was every inch the hero she had always thought him to be, she found the romantic daydreams had been burnt out by a year of pain and challenge.

She then spent six (much calmer) months in Pandaria, restoring the land's shattered balance. She had just turned seventeen when Vol'jin, the newly-installed warchief, sent his shadow-hunters to find her. Garrosh had escaped his prison, they told her. The Dark Portal had turned even darker. The Horde was calling on its heroes yet again.

With no hesitation, she answered the warchief's summons, as Duty demanded. She gathered her weapons and armour, and stood with Thrall and the other heroes of Azeroth at the Dark Portal. Together they leapt through, to face the threat of the Iron Horde.


End file.
